The Rising One
by Prewritesuccession
Summary: Temperance Finch never expected the blast from the past who is Leo Valdez. But when a certain rainbow goddess tells them Finch can be vital to their quest the rescue her old, crazy nanny, Tia Callida, from a team of giants, her normal life turns upside-down and she may even uncover the identity of the father she never had and face what she's been running from.
1. The Au Pair from the Black Lagoon

"So...you're saying...you're the son of a fire dude...and you were sent by the rainbow god on your quest to save our old evil babysitter to find someone who can help you on this quest...who _you_ think is _me_."

I watched his eyes to know I got it right. When he nodded solemnly, I folded my arms across my apron and raised an _are you kidding me right now?_ eyebrow at the boy standing in front of me. But he didn't break out into laughter like I had expected him to. Instead, all I got was a perfectly innocent response.

"Rainbow _goddess_," he corrected me.

I rolled my eyes. "Very funny, Valdez," I told him. I eyed his mud-splattered jeans and ripped-up army jacket with minimal concern, but mostly just annoyance. Valdez could keep his jokes up but not his appearance?

Leo glanced out (again) at the alley opening, but all I saw behind him (again) was daylight between brick wall and Dumpsters. I wiped my floury hands on my apron, annoyed. I had pastry duties, and Sarah wouldn't be too happy to find me in the back alley with a boy during working hours. I touched the navy stretch-band failing at its job to keep my side bangs out of my eyes. Perhaps it was on too tight.

_So...my friend missing for two years suddenly comes back telling me a rainbow lady is telling me to go find my psycho nanny who used to promote arson?_

I wanted to throw my head back in laughter.

Did he come all this way just to play a stupid joke?

"Look, Leo," I turned and put a hand on the door knob leading back to the kitchen where the bustle of the café marked our crowded afternoon hour. "I really have to go." His dark eyes were so desperate as he looked at me, it made me stop for a second. I dropped my voice too quiet. "I'm sorry. Maybe if you came back sooner, I would've believed you." Then, I tightened my grip, turned away from him and opened my eyes wide a few times so they'd dry out. I used to just melt down to pudding when he looked at me like that.

I _used_ to; he used to be able to kill me with one of those incredibly agonizingly desperate looks that made me do _everything _from doing the dishes for him or laughing at another moderately-humorous joke or _tying those stupid ties his foster mom always had him wear, like the last time thirty-six days before..._

_Why was he taking this joke so far?_ I turned my voice more gentle, and just to be nice, placed my other hand on his arm. Even though it was wrapped up in a neon blue cast, I figured it was better than nothing. "Look, I have some lemon meringue tartlets in the kitchen and-"

A piercing scream tore through the air and I dropped what I was saying. We both wordlessly turned and ran down the back alley, breaking into sunlight. Even after my vision cleared, I had to blink and knock my head against my casted palm a few times before I could properly see what was in front of me. Right there in front of the fountain, was a girl, a stunning girl (yes, I am envious, yup) desperately using an umbrella to bat away a swarm of goose-sized pigeons screaming bloody murder and molting white and black feathers all over the place. Then, I blinked and she was holding a golden blade. Metallic feathers littered the ground around her as she swiped desperately, but the birds were too fast. Blade feathers were shot around her, and tiny cuts grazed her arms and face. On the other side of the courtyard was another boy, slicing at the birds with a little more success than the girl.

In his hand was a giant...golf club-no. Golden sword. (How did I miss _that_?)Metal feathers shed at his feet and pools of oil blood were smeared across the pristine marble tiling. A majestic head was cut and flew about a yard away from my feet. I watched, sickened, as the bronze beak opened, looked at me with a shining eye, then dissolved into dust. Then, around the boy, the birds uttered a grating call like a cheese grater down the drain then dispersed. Like they had been working together for years, Leo and the boy exchanged a look, ignoring me, and ran to help their friend.

She had tears in her beautiful eyes and clutched her fighting arm. Blood dripped through her clenched fingers.

"Piper!" the boy cried, rushing to help her, but the flock dispersed and attacked him and Leo, trying to keep them separated from her, I realized. As the birds- _Stymphalion _birds was the name that somehow popped into my head-circled overhead, Leo pulled what looked like a clarinet out of his belt (wait-WHAT?) and gazed wickedly up at the birds, pointing an end up to the sky.

"WHO WANTS FRIED CHICKEN?" he screamed, and I guess that was enough of an invitation to them, because they let out another metal on metal scream and dove. The other boy whipped with his sword while Leo fed fire into the welding torch from his palm (wait-WHAT?). I watched, wide-eyed, at this spectacle. And all I could think was, _geez, Sarah's going to be so mad at me that I burned _another _batch of tartlets._


	2. Dying Caws of A Mistress Cause

Back when we were thirteen after I accidentally knocked over a candle and burned down the storage shed, Tia reappeared. I was there with Leo, but I didn't think he wanted me anymore. He was so much more...closed and quiet after the incident. But the first time he smiled since then was when _we were baking and Leo and I had burned lemon fried chicken, twenty-nine days before..._

The burned birds lost their feathers and dropped into piles of dirt with dying _caws_. Like a _dying cause_. I almost laughed at my pun, but I was still frozen, wanting to look away from the dying creatures, but almost wanting to run out and help kill them too. Another scream filled the air; but this time it was human. The girl was running, which wasn't a good choice, but I saw it was a last resort. She flailed desperately around her with the dagger in her hand, but the wound on her arm was _revolting. _Blood ran down her arm from where a triangular bite had been taken out. The birds pecked at her bare arms and she almost stumbled on the train of her long dress.

Immediately, I felt myself go out to her. I had no weapons. I had no skills. But I had guts. Wasn't that all that mattered? As I took a step, an angry clatter from the bakery café stopped me in my tracks. A woman in a floury, flowery apron stepped into the yard, her red hair like flames in her whipping ponytail. Her red face and angry eyes would've scared the fried chicken out of me any other day, but the anger, I saw, was at the Stymphalion birds. In one hand was a graceful silver bow and strapped across her back over her flower-print dress was a full quiver of matching silver arrows. And in the other hand was a tray of gunk-covered, super-powerful, threatening...burned lemon meringue tartlets.

Over the chaos, Sarah marched right next to me, looking ready to take on those birds right then, and shoved the cool muffin tray into my hands. I looked up at her in confusion, like, _do you expect me to fight them with these? _but she was already marching into range. My strict boss for the last year quickly strung a shining arrow and took down three birds with one shot of a metal flash. Falling mechanical wings and the smell of grease filled the air. The girl looked up at Sarah in terror, but quickly smiled at her, a beautiful smile, then stumbled to her feet and fought with new vigor.

I shook in my boots; not from fear, but from _excitement. _For some crazy, messed-up reason, I wanted to help. I didn't like that this was happening, but since it already is, I suppose I felt _inclined _and _drawn _to fight. But I bit my lip and bounced on my feet, still carrying the tray of tartlets with my good hand. Was that wrong I wanted violence? Was that sick?

Not sure what I was even doing, I made my decision and marched close to the two. I didn't have a plan. But I just _knew _what I had to do. Sarah was already out of arrows, and was batting home runners with her silver bow, but I saw her arms quiver at the effort. If this was the Sarah who could heft two fifty-pound sacks of flour over both shoulders, I was very frightened at how hard it was to whack a few metal birds. Excess metal feathers whipped around me, but I plucked the blades out of my jacket and kept going. Anger bubbled through my limbs; I wasn't even sure _what _I was angry at, but I didn't really care.

I stood next to Sarah and wordlessly whacked away a bird with my cast before she could even lift her bow to strike. I felt my boss's eyes wide on me, but I couldn't care less: I felt so..._unstoppable_. _Powerful_. Then, I uttered the most fearsome battle cry everyone in Manhattan had ever heard.

"HEY, TURKEYS!" They stopped to cock flashing bronze beaks in my direction. Suddenly, with a flash I was certain what they were after. I saw it in their eyes; actually, _eye. _They all had the same eyes, like video cameras transmitting everything to someone...or _something_. It was an eye of a cruel, miserable mistress. It was greedy and hungry, like the eyes of ravenous vultures. But instead of breaking down like normal people would have, I calmly opened my jacket and reached into the pocket sewn into the fabric near my heart to reach what I was looking for. It felt cool and rough in my fingers...like petrified ashes. With a flourish, I held up a black, skeleton key that flashed evilly in the light. Designs winded across the top like the scroll of a violin. The teeth were oddly shaped and curled into a strangely-shaped pattern.

With the sound of a hundred fluttering wings, the shiny birds massed and circled above, screeching and half-heartedly shooting metal feathers at me, but they knew if I...um...died, the key would disappear too. Amazingly, I felt perfectly fine with it. In fact, I felt _awesome_ about it. _Yeah! I'm ready to die, and I'm taking as many of you chickens with me! _I shoved the key back into my jacket and hefted my muffin tray at the ready, waving my bright blue cast in the air like a signal flag.

"THEN COME DOWN AND GET IT!"


End file.
